I've been noodling about in the orchard / forest garden nearby, and come away with some clippings to try grafting. I want a branch of a different variety on each of my trees to ensure pollination. The fact that nothing in the orchard was labelled makes this more interesting!

I went for bud grafts, and it seemed very simple so now I'm waiting to see what I've done wrong...

Hairyloon

Joined: 20 Nov 2008Posts: 14981Location: Today I are mostly being in Yorkshire.

They should have some stored energy, but all of the cells for the new leaves have already been made (in preparation for next year). The cells sort of get "inflated" with water pressure, which wouldn't happen if there wasn't some flow through from the stem, so congrats! Sounds like early indications of probable success!

If you used something like parafilm (my preference) than you can just leave it on for the plant to force off as it grows.

Notice that I said an early indicator, not a proof positive! I'd leave them unmolested for at least a couple weeks before poking about to see which have really made it. And I wouldn't worry about having too many until you know which have made it through winter!

Hairyloon

Joined: 20 Nov 2008Posts: 14981Location: Today I are mostly being in Yorkshire.